Details have begun to emerge regarding the 2011-2012 NBA season, and we won’t complain because we’re getting a season and at this point they could play them in zero gravity in a tar pit and we’d be happy. But just so you know, you need to prepare yourself for a pretty ugly season overall. Details courtesy of Howard Beck of the New York Times:
- Season starts December 25th, ends April 26th. That’s about two weeks later than usual, and it means there will only be one day off from the end of the regular season before the playoffs begin on Saturday, April 28th, presumably. That’s not a huge bump in games, 3.9 games up from 3.5 per week, according to Beck.
- What’s the only thing worse than a SEGABABA (second game of a back to back) (via Pounding The Rock)? A THIRGABABA. Third game of a back-to-back-to-back. Each team will have at least one, and up to three back-to-back-to-back sets, three games in three nights. Surprisingly, Zach Lowe of SI.com did research on this from 99 and found that teams didn’t really lose significantly more often on those games. It’ll be interesting to see the effect it has on subsequent games, however, as well as total fatigue.
- Teams are looking at 48 games in conference, 18 games out of conference. So teams will not visit all 29 other cities during the season. Whoever doesn’t get the Lakers will miss out on a solid night of revenue. Same for whoever misses out on Miami.
- Maybe most gross? Each playoff team will have a back-to-back in the second round. that will speed up the playoffs which people tend to complain about, but the quality of games also suffer.
So you’ve got players out of shape coming into a shortened schedule, playing three times in three nights and then back at it on limited rest.
Hope you guys like rebounds.